Jeanne Vertefeuille and Sandra Grimes could be George Smiley's people. They were recruited on their college campuses by the Central Intelligence Agency during the height of the Cold War. Jeanne wanted travel and adventure. Sandy didn't know much about the CIA; she just needed a job. Jeanne and Sandy. That's how they refer to themselves in the book they co-authored, "Circle of Treason. " It tells the story of these two women - Jeanne worked her way up from the equivalent of the steno pool, while Sandy was immediately in the Soviet division (and over her head)

JUST WHEN Republicans thought they had the Clinton administration's neck neatly in place, waiting for the guillotine to fall in the FBI files case, along comes a tall-tales G-man named Gary Aldrich to scramble the plot. Mr. Aldrich's "expose" of alleged presidential trysts in a Washington hotel, as contained in a book issued by a right-wing publisher, was quickly repudiated by the conservative journalist he cited as a source.The Clinton entourage knows a distraction when it sees one, and it quickly sought to shift attention from its mass invasions of privacy to Mr. Aldrich's tabloid-style disclosures.

Have you ever noticed how people just seem to know your business around here? Maybe it's bred into the culture, part of our rowhouse roots or that whole smallest-big-city thing, but no man is an island in Baltimore. I remember grilling lamb chops in my backyard shortly after I'd moved into my current house, when someone I hadn't met yet materialized at the fence and asked, "Want some rosemary to go with that?" Um, sure, and I'll take some disaster survival insurance, too. Engaged neighbors, Daniel P. Aldrich tells me, are key to surviving and recovering from natural disasters.

Carroll Community College student Sherilee Aldrich-Maenner plays a substantial part as one of the members of the chorus in Catonsville Community College's production of "Stop the World I Want to Get Off!"Aldrich-Maenner has studied theater, costume design, voice and modern dance at Southern Illinois University.After moving to Maryland, the city resident continued her studiesat Catonsville, Baltimore County, enrolling in acting classes and joining the student theater group.A busy student, wife and mother, she also teaches creative movement for children at the Performing Arts Learning Center in Westminster, while studying classical ballet under the direction of Patty Neivert.

Everyone knew Baltimore was a disaster area. The tornadoes made it official.Next time the CIA makes a personnel evaluation, remember that it is the agency that wrote off Aldrich H. Ames as mediocre, and he was the most effective spy in history.If dull old Parris can't bring out the black vote, Dr. Pierpont's vigilantes will, even if he can't enlist any.

Have you ever noticed how people just seem to know your business around here? Maybe it's bred into the culture, part of our rowhouse roots or that whole smallest-big-city thing, but no man is an island in Baltimore. I remember grilling lamb chops in my backyard shortly after I'd moved into my current house, when someone I hadn't met yet materialized at the fence and asked, "Want some rosemary to go with that?" Um, sure, and I'll take some disaster survival insurance, too. Engaged neighbors, Daniel P. Aldrich tells me, are key to surviving and recovering from natural disasters.

IF YOU'RE ANYTHING LIKE me -- and millions are hoping you're not -- you have two towering ambitions in life.One is to sing a duet with Kathie Lee Gifford. Any song will do, but I was thinking either "Muskrat Love" or "Eve of Destruction."The other is to write a best-selling book.Once it was a difficult thing to write a best-seller. For one thing, you needed talent. And, even more difficult to come by, a good agent. Of course there was another option. If you didn't have talent, you could always wear dark glasses, hang out with nerds, gain maybe 50 pounds and change your name to Tom Clancy.

Barbara Mitchell Aldrich said she knew something was wrong that Monday afternoon in October when she didn't hear her tellers give a friendly "hello" to the people who had entered the Randallstown bank she managed.Her instincts proved accurate."One of them had a gun," Mrs. Aldrich told a Baltimore County jury yesterday.Within minutes, she said, two robbers wearing ski masks herded her and three other employees into the vault of the Farmers Bank and Trust Co., made them lie on the floor, then shot them "from one side to the other."

John Alfred Aldrich, a retired electronics engineer and avid sailor, died Saturday of pulmonary fibrosis at the William Hill Manor retirement community in Easton. He was 87. The son of a Bethlehem Steel Corp. chief naval draftsman and a homemaker, Mr. Aldrich was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute in 1940, he attended Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., for a year. He attended the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

It's a little-known fact that when NASA astronauts venture outside the shuttle, they wear diapers under their spacesuits. An even lesser-known fact is that it's the duty of 47-year-old George Aldrich to sniff them. "Before they're used," he quickly adds. Aldrich has probably the most unusual and least-known job in the U.S. space program. Each month, he and a small group of volunteers stick their noses into just about everything that goes into orbit - from circuit boards and spacesuits to makeup and toys.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Southern District Theft from vehicle: An electric drill and eyeglasses were stolen yesterday from a 1977 Ford truck parked in the 4500 block of Curtis Ave. The items were valued at $300. Burglary: At least $200, fried chicken and a TV dinner were stolen yesterday from an apartment in the 700 block of W. Cross St. by someone who entered through an unlocked door. Southwestern District Shootings: Two young women were standing with friends in the 200 block of S. Collins Ave. about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when an occupant of a passing dark colored car fired into the group.

Isabel Thom Barton Davis, a teacher who spent almost 40 years working with generations of Baltimore children, died Thursday of congestive heart failure at Blakehurst Life Care Community in Towson. She was 81. A Baltimore native, Mrs. Davis never strayed far from her parents' home in the Lutherville area. She attended Bryn Mawr School and Goucher College, graduating in 1941. When she married Allen Aldrich Davis Sr. in 1940, she moved to the other side of Dulaney Valley Road, to the Hampton neighborhood.

A Baltimore County jury yesterday convicted Benjamin Franklin Boisseau Jr. of first-degree murder and other charges for his role in a Randallstown bank robbery last October that left two women dead and two others injured.As the forewoman delivered the guilty verdicts, Boisseau, 23, stared mournfully at the judge, while the husband of one of the tellers murdered at the Farmers Bank & Trust Co. grasped the hand of the branch manager, Barbara Mitchell Aldrich.Mrs. Aldrich, who survived the shootings to call for help, wiped from her eyes the tears she had held back Tuesday when she calmly described how Boisseau's companion methodically shot her and three other employees, one by one, as they lay helpless on the floor of the bank vault.